15 Days in Uganda Rwanda Holiday

The 15 days Uganda Rwanda holiday is an incredible tour that will start from Kigali, Rwanda, and end in Entebbe, Uganda. The safari will take you to the most interesting destinations in Uganda and Rwanda, including Nyungwe Forest National Park, Volcanoes National Park, Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, and Kibale Forest National Park, where you will be able to enjoy chimpanzee trekking, gorilla trekking, and golden monkey trekking.

The safari will also take you to Queen Elizabeth National Park and Murchison Falls National Park, where you will be able to spot abundant wild animals like lions, leopards, buffaloes, elephants, Uganda kobs, waterbucks, oribi, topi, bushbucks, giraffes, warthogs, Jackson’s hartebeest, and hippos, among others.

Highlights 

Day 1: Pick up and transfer to Nyungwe Forest National Park

Day 2: Chimpanzee trekking and canopy walk

Day 3: Transfer to Volcanoes National Park

Day 4: Golden monkey trekking

Day 5: Transfer to Bwindi Impenetrable National Park

Day 6: Gorilla trekking experience

Day 7: Transfer to Queen Elizabeth National Park

Day 8: Morning game drive and afternoon boat cruise

Day 9: Morning game drive and transfer to Kibale Forest National Park

Day 10: Chimpanzee trekking and Bigodi swamp walk

Day 11: Transfer to Murchison Falls National Park

Day 12: Morning game drive and afternoon boat cruise

Day 13: Transfer to Jinja via Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary

Day 14: White water rafting

Day 15: Source of the Nile boat ride and departure flight to Entebbe

Detailed itinerary

Day 1: Pick up and transfer to Nyungwe Forest National Park

Depending on your location on the first day, you will be picked by our driver guide from Kigali airport or your hotel, have a short briefing about the safari and then go for a short city tour where you will visit the Kigali genocide memorial Centre, craft markets among others.

After the Kigali city tour, you will start the journey to Nyungwe Forest National Park with an en-route lunch on the way and a stopover at the former King’s Palace. Later proceed to the park, and upon arrival, connect to your lodge for dinner and overnight.

Day 2: Chimpanzee trekking and canopy walk

After an early breakfast on the second day of the safari, you will meet up with your driver guide to transfer to the park headquarters for a chimpanzee trekking briefing, after which you will start trekking in the forest in search of the chimpanzees, which takes about 2 to 5 hours depending on where they slept the previous night.

During trekking, you will be able to spot different bird species and other primates like olive baboons, silver monkeys, red-tailed monkeys, and vervet monkeys, among others.

Once the chimpanzees are located, you will be allowed to spend one hour with them, learn more about their habits, watch them feed, play, rest, fight, take pictures and record videos.

After the chimpanzee trekking experience, you will drive back to the lodge for lunch and later go for an exciting canopy walk where you will have an aerial view of the forest and spot bird species and primates in trees, among others. Later return to the lodge for dinner and overnight.

Day 3: Transfer to Volcanoes National Park

You will have a relaxed breakfast, check out of the lodge, and meet up with your driver guide to transfer to Volcanoes National Park. On the way you will have en-route lunch and enjoy stunning views of the scenery, rolling hills, and views of Lake Kivu, among others. Upon arrival, you will connect to your lodge for dinner and overnight.

Day 4: Golden monkey trekking

After an early breakfast on the fourth day, your driver guide will pick you up from the lodge to transfer to the park headquarters for a briefing about the rules and regulations of golden monkey trekking.

After the briefing, you will start trekking in the forest in search of the golden monkeys with an experienced park guide and park rangers which takes about 2 to 5 hours depending on where the golden monkeys are located.

During the trek, you will be able to view other wildlife species, and once the golden monkeys are found, you will be allowed to spend one hour with them, watch them feed, play, jump up in tree branches, take pictures, and record videos.

Later return to the lodge for lunch and spend the rest of the day at leisure or engage in optional activities like Ibyi’wacu cultural tour where you will be able to interact with the local people in the neighboring communities, learn about their culture, tradition, enjoy their traditional songs and dance among others.

Later return to your lodge for dinner and overnight.

Day 5: Transfer to Bwindi Impenetrable National Park

On the fifth day of the safari, you will have breakfast, check out of the lodge, and meet up with your driver guide to transfer to Bwindi Impenetrable National Park via the Cyanika border in Kisoro.

On the way, you will have a stopover for en-route lunch and then proceed to Bwindi National Park, arriving early evening. Upon arrival, you will connect to your lodge for dinner and overnight.

Day 6: Gorilla trekking in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park

After an early breakfast, your driver guide will pick you up from the lodge with your packed packed lunch to transfer to the park headquarters for a gorilla trekking briefing about the rules, regulations and expectations.

After the briefing you will be allocated a habituated gorilla family to trek and a park guide who is knowledgeable about the mountain gorillas and trails in the jungle.

Trekking of gorillas in Bwindi National Park takes about 30 minutes to 7 hours depending on where the gorillas are located, as they like to move deep into the forest in search of food.

During trekking you will have views of other primates, bird species, butterflies, and others, and once the mountain gorilla family is located, you will get an opportunity to spend one hour with them in their environment, where you will learn more about their behaviors, ask questions, watch them feed, play, breastfeed and groom young ones, take photos, and record videos.

After the one hour with the gentle giants, you will return to the lodge for an evening of relaxation, dinner, and overnight.

Day 7: Transfer to Queen Elizabeth National Park

After a relaxed breakfast on the seventh, you will check out of the lodge and meet up with your driver guide to transfer to Queen Elizabeth National Park, passing via Ishasha sector for a game drive where you will be able to spot the tree-climbing lions lying in acacia/fig tree branches.

After the game drive in the Ishasha sector, you will have an en-route lunch and then proceed to Queen Elizabeth National Park. Upon arrival, connect to your lodge for dinner and overnight.

Day 8: Morning game drive/lion tracking and afternoon boat cruise

You will have an early breakfast, meet up with your driver guide to go for a morning game drive/ lion tracking experience in Kasenyi plains where you will enjoy views of lions, leopards, hyenas, large herds of elephants, buffaloes, Uganda kobs, bushbucks, waterbucks, warthogs among others. You will also be able to spot different bird species and later drive back to the lodge for lunch.

After lunch you will go for an incredible boat cruise on the Kazinga Channel, a 40 km long water channel that connects Lake George and Lake Edward.

During the scheduled boat cruise, which starts at around 2:00pm, you will get a chance to view large concentrations of hippos basking in water, Nile crocodiles lurking on the water banks, elephants, buffaloes, and antelopes drinking water along the shores, and water birds like saddle-billed storks and pink-backed pelicans, among others. After the boat ride you will return to the lodge for an evening of relaxation, dinner, and overnight.

Day 9: Morning game drive and transfer to Kibale Forest National Park—

After breakfast, your driver guide will pick you up from the lodge to go for another morning game drive in the park where you will look out for animals that you might have missed during the previous game drive.

After the game ride, you will drive back to the lodge for lunch where after you will check out and start the journey to Kibale forest national park which takes about 2 to 3 hours’ drive with stunning views of the landscape, crater lakes, tea plantations, Rwenzori peaks among on the way. Upon arrival, you will check into your lodge for dinner and overnight.

Day 10: Chimpanzee trekking and Bigodi swamp walk

You will have an early breakfast at the lodge and meet up with your driver guide to transfer to the park headquarters at Kanyachu Visitors Center for a chimpanzee trekking briefing.

After the briefing, you will be subdivided into groups of 8 people, where each group will be allocated a habituated chimpanzee family to trek and an experienced park guide.

Chimpanzee trekking in Kibale National Park takes about 2 to 5 hours depending on where the chimpanzees are located, and during trekking, you will be able to view animals like forest elephants, other primates like black and white colobus monkeys, grey-cheeked mangabey, olive baboons, and bird species, among others.

Once the chimpanzees are located, you will get an opportunity to spend one hour with them, watch them carry out their daily activities, learn more about their habits, take photos, and record videos to show people back home after the safari.

Later, drive back to the lodge for lunch, where after, you will go for an amazing nature walk in Bigodi Swamp, where you will enjoy views of primates like vervet monkeys, hoest monkeys, red colobus monkeys, and red-tailed monkeys, and bird species like the great blue turaco, kingfishers, hornbills, and colorful butterflies, among others. After the Bigodi swamp walk, you will return to the lodge for relaxation, dinner, and overnight.

Day 11: Transfer to Murchison Falls National Park

After a relaxed breakfast, you will check out of the lodge and meet up with your driver guide to start the journey to Murchison Falls National Park. It’s a whole-day journey, and on the way you will have en-route lunch and enjoy stunning views of the farmlands, beautiful scenery, and landscape, among others.

Upon arrival in Murchison falls national park you will drive directly to the top of the falls where you will have great views of the waterfall, listen to its roars, take pictures of the beautiful scenery among others. From the top of the falls tour you will connect to your lodge for dinner and overnight.

Day 12: Morning game drive and afternoon boat cruise

After an early breakfast on day 12 of the safari, your driver guide will pick you up from the lodge to go for a morning game drive in the park, where you will be able to spot various animals like buffaloes, Uganda kobs, warthogs, giraffes, elephants, bushbucks, waterbucks, oribi, lions, leopards, hyenas, and Jackson hartebeest and view different bird species, among others. After the game ride you will return to the lodge for lunch.

After lunch you will go for an interesting boat cruise to the bottom of the falls, which takes about a 2- to 3-hour drive. During the boat cruise, you will be rewarded with incredible views of hippos and Nile crocodiles in water, views of elephants and buffaloes quenching their thirst along the riverbanks, and the spot of bird species like kingfishers, turacos, herons, fish eagles, and bee-eaters, among others. After the boat cruise you will drive back to the lodge for dinner and overnight.

Day 13: Transfer to Jinja via Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary

After an early breakfast, you will check out of the lodge and meet up with your driver guide to start the journey to Jinja. On the way you will have a stopover for en-route lunch and another stopover at Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary for rhino tracking.

After rhino tracking, you will proceed to Jinja, arriving in the evening, and upon arrival, you will check into the lodge for dinner and overnight.

Day 14: White water rafting experience

After breakfast, your driver guide will pick you up from the lodge to go for a white water rafting adventure, which starts with a briefing about the rules, regulations, and expectations.

After the briefing, you will start the rafting experience, which has different grades ranging from grade 1 to grade 5 for the experienced people. After rafting, you will meet up with your driver guide and return to the lodge for dinner and overnight.

Day 15: Source of the Nile boat cruise and departure to Entebbe

This is the last day of your safari. Have breakfast at leisure, check out of the lodge and meet up with your driver guide to go for an amazing boat cruise to the source of the Nile, where you will enjoy views of the beautiful scenery, landscape, bird species, reptiles among others.

After the boat cruise, you will meet up with your driver guide and start the journey back to Entebbe with an en-route lunch on the way. Upon arrival, your driver guide will drop you off at Entebbe International Airport for your departure flight or drop you off at your hotel in Entebbe depending on your schedule.

End of 15 days Uganda-Rwanda holiday

Includes       

• Gorilla trekking permit
• Chimpanzee trekking permit
• Golden monkey trekking permit
• Park entrance fees/game drives
• Lion tracking experience
• Rhino tracking
• Boat cruise fees
• Top of the falls
• Canopy walk
• Bigodi swamp walk
• White water rafting experience
• All activities included in the itinerary
• Services of a professional English-speaking driver guide
• Full board accommodation
• Pick up from Kigali and drop off in Kampala/Entebbe
• 4WD Safari Vehicle and fuel
• Bottled drinking water

Excludes                   

• All air flight tickets
• Visas
• Travel insurance
• Optional activities not included in the itinerary
• Tipping and gratuities
• Personal expenses like buying souvenirs, cigarettes, crafts, drinks, laundry services, and hiring a porter, among others.